Today we got back from a few days camping in the mountains with the Cub Scouts. It was fairly warm during the day and quite cold at night, particularly since last night the Santa Ana winds prevented us from having campfires. I played guitar anyway, fingers numb enough to serve as picks.
Wandering the campsite at 3am, unable to sleep, I was struck by the sight of the Milky Way, something our modern world hides from us.
Linden Lab has settled the Bragg lawsuit, which means that the industry has once again managed to dodge legal questions regarding ownership of “virtual property.” The settlement is confidential, so we don’t know what the monetary result was.
Linden Research, Inc., Philip Rosedale, and Marc Bragg have agreed to settle the “Bragg v. Linden and Rosedale” lawsuit currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The parties agree that there were unfortunate disagreements and miscommunications regarding the conduct and behavior by both sides and are pleased to report that Mr. Bragg’s “Marc Woebegone” account, privileges and responsibilities to the Second Life community have been restored. For the benefit of the Second Life community, the Parties have mutually agreed that the terms of their resolution shall remain confidential. The Parties ask that this confidentiality be respected.
Terra Nova: Arden Slows Down, Takes Breather
Ted says in the comments:
Emphasizing Shakespeare was a mistake. The burdens of a license! Everyone thought it was World of Hamlet and the point was to teach high school kids 2B|~2B. But teaching Shakespeare has always been an ancillary benefit, not the point. I thought it would be cute. But putting Shakespeare in the game, I found, took away resources from fun. Lore, by itself, did not make a fun game. Shakespeare also loaded us up with an entire community of expectations, people who dig the idea of a digital Shakespeare. To those people, I want to say YES, I dig the idea too, but please come up with the $50m it will take to build that world before asking me (AGAIN) when Arden is going to be done. I had $240K and was thrilled to have it. But that’s 1/200th of the money you’d need to do what some of the folks out there had dreamed up. Their dreams became pressure on us, and made me wonder why I didn’t say I was making Arden: World of Actuaries.
Next week I’ll be at VWFall in San Jose. Online registration ends tomorrow. Just a friendly reminder. 🙂
I did an interview with Virtual Worlds News, which has just been posted. There’s a fair amount of crunchy Metaplace info there, plus echoes of the recent discussion on categories, and of course my usual trademark philosophical rambling…
I do worry about virtual worlds having this enormous potential value, like social value, in terms of self-discovery and bridging gaps in cultures and bringing people together who wouldn’t normally interact. I want them to reach their potential for that. That’s the big boon they can bring society. I do worry that won’t happen. The Internet has the great advantage of letting the person who didn’t fit in in their small town find other people, but it also has the disadvantage of letting you avoid talking to people not like you. I see that as risky. I think it’s important to always be encountering viewpoints other than your own. With Metaplace as a network, it lets you serendipitously encounter that, but I do worry about it.
